It seems that the government released some worrying figures over the dire state of childrens’ mental health services over the Christmas break.

While everybody was tucking into their turkey and watching Doctor Who, the figures show that “numbers arriving at A&E departments with psychiatric conditions has risen to nearly 20,000 a year –more than double the number four years ago”.

]]>https://acockupaday.wordpress.com/2015/12/27/christmas-a-great-time-to-bury-bad-news-about-mental-health/feed/0brockman72The midnight email that set off the rebellion against Hague’s dirty tactics to dump Bercowhttps://acockupaday.wordpress.com/2015/03/28/the-midnight-email-that-set-off-the-rebellion-against-hagues-dirty-tactics-to-dump-bercow/
https://acockupaday.wordpress.com/2015/03/28/the-midnight-email-that-set-off-the-rebellion-against-hagues-dirty-tactics-to-dump-bercow/#respondSat, 28 Mar 2015 16:40:26 +0000http://acockupaday.wordpress.com/2015/03/28/the-midnight-email-that-set-off-the-rebellion-against-hagues-dirty-tactics-to-dump-bercow/David Hencke: Bercow supporter Julian Lewis. MP for New Forest East, warned colleagues of the plot in this email Once you write a story you often get new information sent to you. Now an MP has sent…]]>

Bercow supporter Julian Lewis. MP for New Forest East, warned colleagues of the plot in this email

Once you write a story you often get new information sent to you. Now an MP has sent me the email sent out by Julian Lewis, Conservative MP for New Forest East and a supporter of John Bercow, to hundreds of MPs at midnight warning them of the ambush that William Hague had set up to get rid of the Speaker.I thought it worth publishing as a little bit of Parliamentary history to go with the earlier story. I see the Spectator has also picked up the email.

Dear Colleague,

At the start of this Parliament, the Procedure Committee undertook an investigation into elections for positions in the House. As part of this, the Committee looked at methods for electing the Speaker and identified two routes: (i) an open ballot as at present…

Unemployment jumped by 70,000 in the three months to the end of February and pay rises registered the lowest increase since 2001, adding to the mounting pressure on George Osborne to adopt a more aggressive growth strategy.

The number of people unemployed reached 2.56 million, with 20,000 under 25-year-olds adding their name to the register, pushing the unemployment rate up from 7.8% to 7.9%.

The worrying figures, which reflect a reverse in the trend last year for unemployment to fall, come after the International Monetary Fund urged the chancellor to ease his austerity plans and adopt more aggressive measures to spur growth.

David Cameron’s “friends and family” satisfaction survey of hospitals is regarded as unnecessary by the public and should be dropped in its current guise because it could be misleadingly negative about the NHS, according to a government-commissioned evaluation.

Under the prime minister’s plan, patients and staff will be able to score every hospital and GP in England on whether they would be happy for their loved ones to use the service. Cameron personally launched the scheme, which comes into place this month, claiming that it could act as a “flashlight” on the NHS’s failings.

However, a report from Ipsos Mori found a lack of interest among both staff and patients in the scheme. It also highlighted widespread concerns that the methodology subsequently chosen by the government for the survey would be misleading and advised that it should be dropped.

The controversial reforms to disability benefits will be challenged in court by a group of disabled people who say that the government’s consultation over the new rules was unlawful. If successful, the campaign would deal a second major blow to Iain Duncan Smith’s wide-ranging reforms.

Three activists have asked for permission to bring a judicial review of the government’s consultation over the introduction of the Personal Independence Payment, which is replacing the Disability Living Allowance. They claim that ministers made the regulations more stringent after the consultation process was finished.